


If You Keep Me Next to You

by presentpathos



Category: Batwoman (Comic)
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, F/F, First Date, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-18
Updated: 2012-12-18
Packaged: 2017-11-21 11:34:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/597254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/presentpathos/pseuds/presentpathos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Women in uniforms were her kryptonite.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You Keep Me Next to You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rhllors](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhllors/gifts).



> This story would not exist at all without the help of custardpringle, who listened to me blather on about continuity and character for more than is reasonable. And for the second year running Katsaka came to grammar rescue and made me look like much less of an idiot then is usually the case.   
> The title, btw, unabashedly stolen from a Taylor Swift Song called 22.

Kate slowed and pulled over as soon as soon as the she saw the lights flashing behind her. Fifty-two in a thirty-five didn't seem like a hanging offence at this hour of the night, or was it morning? She fumbled around in the glove box for the registration, fished her license out of her pocket and stared straight ahead.

“Yes, I know it's posted, it's thirty-five. I was doing all of like, forty. You trying to make your quota?” she asked. She was in the wrong and she knew it, but it wasn't going to stop her from arguing.

“I clocked you doing fifty-two, ma'am. License and registration please.” It was a hell of a voice.

Kate passed her IDs over the door without looking and continued to belabour her innocence. “No, I wasn't, I was not— I was doing forty, tops.”

When she finally looked up at the cop that belonged to that voice, she immediately reconsidered her tack. It's the uniform, Kate thought. Women in uniforms were her kryptonite. It's why she never would have made it in the service. Too many capable women in too many uniforms.

“Uh-huh,” said the cop as she  glanced over her license for a few seconds before continuing. “Have you been drinking this evening, Miss, uh, Kate?”

The cop was so buttoned down that  Kate could hardly help herself.

“Why, you offering to buy me one?”

“I'm just,” said the cop, blushing furiously, “maybe some other time.”

“When?” Kate hoped that this rook wasn't as nervous with every pretty girls she pulled over.

“Sorry?”

“Some other time _when_ , officer...?”

The cop took the hint. “Montoya. Renee Montoya.”

“Renee Montoya. I'm Kate.” Kate gave her best flirtatious smile.

“Yeah, I know.” Of course she knew; she was holding the license in her hand still. No ticket book though.

The cop looked at her license again, a little harder than before, and handed it back. “ _Sometime_ is when.” She smiled, finally finding her sea legs. “I know where to find you.” She turned and walked back to her patrol car; flicked off the lights and tore off into the night.

Kate had been heading downtown to a club opening— drink a little too much, flirt a little too much, go home with someone inappropriate, a grad student or maybe a Senator's daughter, try not to make Page Six. The usual Friday night.

“Kate,” the girl (Kate couldn't remember her name) leaned in very close and spoke as softly as she could in a club as loud as this one, “You wanna go to the bathroom? I got a little X, you want to do some?”

Fucking rich kids, she thought to herself, as she pushed the girl away. “I don't do drugs, try someone else.”

“You want just go in there and screw?”

Kate almost did a spit take with her beer. “What?”

“Come on, I heard things about you. I want you to take me to the washroom and fuck me weak-kneed." She wrapped her arms around Kate’s waist and tried to slide one hand in the waistband of her leather pants. "I was talking to Jocelyn Waldorf last week. She said you fucked her in the alleyway outside Sweaty Betty's and it was the best she'd ever been fucked."

Kate, if she was being honest with herself, was pretty drunk and more than a little turned on. This girl— Alex, she suddenly remembered. Short for Alexandria. She kept sticking her tongue out just far enough that it gently caressed the shell of Kate's ear as she was talking, completely short circuiting her brain.

"Oh, she did, did she?" Kate smiled and pulled the girl in closer, pushing her legs apart with one of her own thighs. She pushed and pulled until the other girl was pressed up against her, skirt riding up on her thighs. Until she could feel the heat of Alex's arousal through the leather of her own pants. She kissed her hard and sloppy. "Well, let's go see if that's true."

She took Alex's hand and led her towards the bathroom, pushing past the line like she owned the place. Technically, she did, a little bit. The seed capital had come from a Kane controlled bank, and she was a Kane now, so sure, she could cut the line. No one protested. Inside she lead Alex towards the farthest stall and slipped the latch.

Alex was on her in a flash, pressed up between Kate and the wall, letting Kate lift her from the ground, support her with her strong arms. Kate kissed a trail of light kisses down the column of her neck, nipping hard enough on her clavicle she'd have to wear high-collared shirts for a few days after this. Alex moaned as Kate worked one hand around to explore between her legs, pressing the damp cotton of her panties just enough to the side to give her access to Alex's wet heat. Kate moaned as she slipped one finger inside, up to the second knuckle. She curled it around, pressing it up against the walls of Alex's pussy. 

“More,” Alex demanded. Kate slipped a second finger in, locking her eyes with Alex's as she did so. Alex bit her lip and let her eyes slip downward. Kate added a third and increased the pace. 

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck," the girl moaned. "Kate— fuck, deeper! Please!" She jerked her hips forward, forcing Kate's fingers deeper. The walls of her pussy clamped down as she came, moaning.

Kate let her down easy, sliding her low enough that she could sit on the closed toilet. Alex reached out and pulled her closer by her belt loops, fumbling with the button at Kate's waist when she was close enough. She succeeded, eventually, in getting Kate's pants undone and jerking them, plus the boy panties she was wearing, off her hips.

Kate moaned as Alex leaned forward, her breath gently blowing against her pussy. Alex slid her hands up her legs, twisting them inwards as they reached her upper thighs. Kate couldn't help herself, she reached out and pressed gently on the back of Alex's head, asking without words. Alex acquiesced, pressing her tongue against Kate's clit.

"Oh god." Kate didn't usually come this fast, but she could instantly feel her orgasm rushing up to meet her. "Oh shit, Renee, shit." She froze. Alex froze, but just for a second, then she leapt to her feet, almost headbutting Kate's stomach in the process.

"Who the fuck is Renee?!" she shouted. Outside the stall Kate could hear the entire washroom fall deadly quiet.

"What? No one." Kate reached behind her and slipped the lock again. "I should...I gotta go. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done this." As she fled the bathroom and the club with her tail between her legs, she hoped her embarrasing name SNAFU would never be spoken of again. She doubted that it would be so. She was too drunk to drive, so she hailed a cab back to her father and stepmother's house, hoping no one would be awake to see her when she snuck in.

Fucking cop, was the last thought she had before drifting off.

* * *

It wasn't like she waited around for the phone to ring. She just didn't go anywhere or do anything for a couple of weeks. Hell, she had practically forgot about Renee Montoya, until her phone rang early on a Wednesday night. Or at least, that's what she told herself.

"Hello, this is Kate."

"Kate?" The voice on the line sounded tentative. "It's Renee, Renee Montoya? I, uh, I pulled you over the other night?"

"Officer Montoya! How nice of you to call." Kate answered, hiding her excitement under a thick layer of frost. 

"Yeah, um, sorry. Things have been kind of hectic at work." Kate could hear Renee chewing her lip over the phone. "So I was wondering if it was too late to take you out for that drink."

Kate weighed her response. She could drag this out, play the part people expected her to play now— spoiled party girl— really let Renee sweat for a bit. Or she could not. For the first time in a long time, she really just felt like not being that person. Just play it straight, she told herself.

"Sure, of course. I'd like that."

"Great, that's great." Renee paused again. "Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know, Officer. It's your plan, why don't you pick a place?" Kate said as she smiled into the phone. "No cop bars, though."

"You got something against cops?" Renee overplayed her accent and hammed up the tough cop voice. Kate laughed.

"Not all of them." 

"I couldn't take you to a cop bar anyway. I'm not, uh, out. At work."

Kate hesitated. She hadn't been with anyone still closeted since she'd been separated from the Army. "Okay, uh, okay. No cop bars then. Better not go anywhere with cameras either, paparazzi rather, they, um, take my picture a lot."

"Right, yeah, of course. Who wouldn't? How about," Renee stopped. "Oh god. I just said that out loud, didn't I?"

Kate laughed again. "Yeah, you did. Smooth. I like it."

"I'm so embarrassed. Jesus. Anyway, I was going to say, how about the Wall Flower? It's down on 115th?"

"I don't know it. I don't, um, I don't go down to that part of Gotham very often. Isn't it kind of dangerous? Oh god. What a rich kid thing to say. You must think I'm a child."

"It's not that dangerous. It's not like I'm inviting you to go walking through Crime Alley at two in the morning, with hundred dollar bills sticking out of our g-strings," Renee said, smiling into the phone. "It's a quiet bar in a kind of rough neighbourhood. Take the F Train to 114th, I'll meet you there. You rich kids know how to take a subway, right?"

"Okay, okay, I get it." Kate felt the blush fade out of her cheeks a little. "And yes, I know how to take the subway. We weren't always this rich, you know. My dad's a career soldier."

"Right. That's why my dad's been writing a rent check to Kane Worldwide every month for the past fifteen years. Must have been real hard, growing up on a civil servant's salary." That hadn't come out the way Renee meant it at all. She rushed to apologize. "Shit. Sorry, long day at work. I know where you're from, Kate, I did a little background reading before I called."

Kate laughed into the phone. "Wait, you did a background check on me before you asked me out?"

Renee shrugged. "Sure. You got access to the tools, may as well use them."

"What'd you find out?"

"Not much, no priors, a couple of speeding tickets. And you should pay those parking tickets. That sign with the capital P and the red line through it? That means you too, Miss Kane."

"Wouldn't do for you to be seen with a criminal I guess. Is that right?"

There was an uncomfortable silence before Renee answered. "Something like that."

They hung up shortly after. Kate had to admit she was excited at the prospect of getting some alone time with an attractive, slightly older woman.

* * *

One thing Renee could definitely say about Kate Kane was that she was easy to spot in a crowd. Just look for the ramrod with the red hair. “Kate!”

Kate spun her head at the sound of her name. She smiled when she saw Renee, and hurried down the platform to meet her.

“Hey,” she said, reaching out and giving Renee a quick, light hug. “Sorry I'm late. My stepmother needed to tell me about some foundation she wants to me to sit on the board for.”

Renee quirked an eyebrow.

“Shit, shit. I'm sorry. I'm not one of those rich bitches, really I'm not. It just keeps slipping out.” She looked down at her feet, scuffing the toe of her combat book against the ground. “I keep trying to impress you.”

“You don't need to try that hard, Kate.” Renee said, reaching out and taking Kate's hand briefly in her own, tugging her towards the exit. “Come on, bar's this way.”

"This is a pretty cool place, how'd you find it?" Kate laid her hand palm up on the table.

"I heard about it, you know, around." Renee reached out, stopped just short of taking it. "It's kind of off the beaten path, work wise. And from my 'hood I guess."

"It must be hard, keeping that secret." Kate tried to make her voice as neutral as possible. She wasn't sure how she felt about getting involved with another woman still so deep in the closet.

"You know how it is," Renee sounded defensive. "I'm not out at work because I don't want all those assholes making jokes all the time. It's not a," she paused. "safe space, the GCPD.”

“Did you really run a background check on me before you called?” Kate asked.

“Not a deep one. Just a quick once over, just to make sure you weren't as awful as all those magazines make you out to be. Why, you didn't ask around about me?”

“Oh, I did a little digging.” Kate's eyes danced as she answered. Renee liked the look of it.

“Oh yeah? What'd you find?”

"Renee Montoya, born Sept 7th, 1970. Father's Hernando Montoya, mother's Louisa, they own a bodega down on the lower east side. You've got a little brother named Benny too. Seems like a good kid. Good grades. Kid like that, he gets a little help, he'd probably do well in college. Maybe even go to the Point." Renee's jaw dropped as Kate continued to talk. “You graduated from Gotham Collegiate and Vocational Institute, which at the time was not the bastion of public education success your brother attends. Went straight to the police academy after school, graduated top of your class. There's a rumour going around that some of GCPD's best police think you're a real rising star."

Renee laughed. "Okay, okay, stop. Jesus. How'd you find all that stuff out about me in a few days?"

Kate smiled. "Few days," she asked. "Who said it took a few days? I've had people looking into you for a few weeks, Officer Montoya. Wasn't sure you were going to call."

"Well, all right. I'll make sure to call sooner next time."

Kate smiled again, lighting up her whole face. “You better.”

She signalled the waitress for two more beers and waited for Renee to speak.

"So, uh, how long have you been out for?"

"About eight or nine months." Kate wasn't sure this was a conversation she wanted to have, but she found herself answering anyway.

"Why'd you do it? West Point's a pretty serious commitment to walk away from."

Kate stared off into the middle distance, remembering everything about that morning. How happy she'd been about the break, how glad she was that Sophie was back. How much she'd been looking forward to the semester. And she remembered the look on the colonel's face. Not disgust, thank god, just disappointment. She didn't know how much time had passed since Renee asked until the other woman reached out and gently touched Kate's wrist.

"You don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to. I shouldn't have asked."

"No, I want to. I haven't really had a chance to talk about it. There are," she paused, "complications in talking about it with my dad or anyone back there." Kate took a long swallow of her beer before starting to answer. "It wasn't my choice. Someone reported me for violating the UCMJ section on homosexual conduct."

"Someone ratted you out?" Renee looked personally affronted at the thought. "You know who it was?"

"Not really. I have an idea. There was this guy from New Hampshire with some pretty negative views about women in the Army and whatever. He was a pretty good cadet, total asshole though. I went out of my way to beat him at everything he tried. I don't know how he found out, but he's my main suspect."

"Fuck. I hate that shit." Renee's grip tightened on Kate’s wrist, but she left it alone for now. "There are guys like that on GCPD, still think it's the fifties and all women should be at home making them dinner. All black people are thugs, all Hispanics are illegal, same bullshit I guess." Both women stopped talking and slowly looked over the others face. Kate grinned a little, Renee snorted out a laugh. "Fuck'em," she said, raising her bottle to clink against Kate’s. "Fuck those guys and the fucking horses they rode in on."

"Geez lady, you must be some cop." Kate smiled.

"What do you mean?" Renee asked, grinning and relaxing the tense hold of her shoulders.

"I didn't mean to say all that stuff. Didn't even realize I was saying it; you'll make one hell of an interrogator one day, Officer Montoya."

Kate wrapped her hand around the neck of her bottle and upended it into her mouth. It was lukewarm and had long passed reasonable drinkability. "Hey, you wanna get out of here? My apartment's pretty off the beaten path, cop-wise."

They spent the ride back to Kate’s apartment chatting about nothing, Renee fighting her natural seriousness in an effort not to freak Kate out more than she was afraid she already had. Kate was trying her best to imitate her stepmother, to keep the conversation light enough for long enough that Renee wouldn't notice how serious Kate’s intentions were— in this case to try and get her into bed— until it was too late.

The stations flew by, until suddenly the automated voice let them know they were at 71st. Kate stood up and reached for Renee’s hand. "This is us." She tugged gently and they exited the train.

Renee whistled low as the surfaced from the train station. “Nice hood, Kane.”

Kate laughed. “It's close to GU. I go to school there now.”

Renee's eyes widened. “You're a university student?”

Kate didn't understand. “Yeah, um, what do you think West Point is? It's a university.”

Renee's eyes looked panicked. “God, you're so young. What am I doing out with someone who's still in university?”

“Renee, you looked right at my driver's license. Seriously. Besides, you're not even that much older than me. One and a half years is hardly anything.”

“But I've got a job, and an apartment, a job with health insurance. Kate, I pay into a _pension plan._ ”

"That's," Kate paused to search for words, "the stupidest thing I've ever heard. And I'm taking a graduate seminar in semiotics this semester."

"What the fuck is semiotics, college girl?" Renee hoped Kate caught the tease in her tone as she spoke. "I'm just a simple police, I don't know your big, fancy college things."

"It's the second stupidest thing I've ever heard. It should to be first, but you already said that thing about the pension plan. That was just ridiculous." Kate tugged Renee forward towards the steps of her brownstone. "Believe me, ten minutes from now you're not going to care about much, especially not your pension plan."

Renee took one step forward, just far enough to keep her balance before digging in and not moving. "Nah, I don't think I should come up."

Kate looked at her, confused and plainly hurt. "I thought we were having a pretty good time?" she asked, running an anxious hand through her hair.

"We are. We did." Renee stepped back, just out of Kate’s reach. That’s why I'm not coming up." Kate kept staring at her as she waited for Renee to speak again. "I had a really good time. I'd like to see you again, but I don't do casual real good. Shit, real well." Renee was panicking, her words now well ahead of her brain. "I don't want to be just another girl you bring home for one night and never call again. I'm not wired like that, and to be honest, I like you a lot more than I should. So I'm gonna go. I hope we can see each other again though. I'll call you next week."

Kate smiled. “You better.”


End file.
